98 OBSERVATIONS AND MEASUREMENTS ACADEMY MEMBERS tMEMO {vo?xxm 



had to be omitted; yet now and then, up to the age of 78 even in one case, a fair record resulted. 



The data follow: 



Table 70. — Tests of strength 



Subjects 



Average 



Minimum 



Maximum 



Range of variation in percentage of 

 average 



Members of Academy, both series, 

 up to 60 years, inclusive 



Pressure in kilograms 



Right hand Left hand 



41 



i 42. 20 



22. 00 



60. 00 



90. 10 



42 

 36. 29 

 16.00 

 49. 00 



90. 90 



Traction 



42 

 23. 43 

 13. 00 

 34.00 



S9. 60 



Members over 60 years 



Pressure in kilograms 



Right hand Left hand 



33 



34.24 

 20. 00 

 48. 50 



83. 20 



33 



29. 56 

 16. 50 

 41. 50 



81 60 



Traction 



29 



18. 89 

 12. 00 

 29. 00 



90. 00 



COMPARISON 



' Right-handed only. 

 >r=100. 



'See the following equation: 

 Pressure + pi . 

 Traction 



Notwithstanding their materially greater mean age, the members of the Academy up to 

 and including 60 years of age are very close to the more cultured old Americans at large in hand 

 pressure and even exceed them slightly in traction. Age for age it is reasonable to assume the 

 members would be throughout, though especially in traction (muscles of arms and shoulders), 

 slightly superior to the outsiders. This is in accord with the somewhat higher stature and 

 greater chest depth in the academicians and suggests once more favorable vitality. 



A remarkably harmonious result is shown by the relation of the pressure-strength in the 

 right and the left hands — it is practically identical with that in the old Americans at large. 

 Results of this nature are convincing proofs of the general value of the determinations. 



All three measurements of strength vary greatly individually. They showed similar, and 

 with the traction even wider, ranges of variation in the old Americans at large. 44 They exceed 

 in variability all the rest of the measured characters. 



The variability in pressure in the left hand tends to exceed somewhat that in the right, and 

 that in traction probably exceeds that in pressure, though one of our groups makes an exception. 

 In all these tests it is impossible, of course, in such a series as ours to draw any fine line between 

 the normal and the not quite normal. 



CONCLUDING DISCUSSION 



The studies on the members of the National Academy which are reported here, if surveyed 

 in toto and compared with the more cultured old American population at large, impress the 

 observer with three outstanding features. The first of these is that the old American contin- 



" The Old Americans, p. 394: Pressure, right hand— 88.5; pressure left hand— 90; traction 143.5. 



